88 of 92 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unique and worthwhile, February 2, 2006
This review is from: Understanding the Chess Openings (Paperback)
Note: This review first published in the Irish Chess Journal, August 2005
Following the success of his first book, An Attacking Repertoire for White, an extract of which was published in the last issue of the ICJ, former Irish Champion IM Sam Collins has written his second book, titled Understanding the Chess Openings.
I have to admit that I didn't quite know what to expect from this before I read it. It's not the kind of chess book that gets written any more, having been squeezed out of favour first by databases on dead trees - the likes of MCO and BCO, and later by their software counterparts. The proliferation of modern opening theory seemed to have killed the opening primer off. The thing is, even now, a database is not a friendly tool for the weak to average club player. A high success rate in a particular line against the Grünfeld in my million-move monster doesn't really tell me much. Even if the line hasn't been found wanting after some super-GM decided he'd really like his knight on h8 and won a game or two, statistics, and to some extent, raw game scores don't explain how the strategic complexities of the line work. As such, I'm rather pleased to see this book appear.
Sam has really tried to be comprehensive - he's got pages on such off-beat openings as the Grob (1 g4?! - the Basman in Sam's terminology), the Black Knight's tango (1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 Nc6!?) and even a little sideline called the Sicilian. That's come at a price. There's only so much room, and devoting pages to the sidelines means that the well-trod paths get less attention than they might have. The Sicilian Dragon, for example, which Sam rightly describes as, "A truly critical test to the viability of 1 e4," receives a mere three pages, which seems almost criminal when compared with the half page of white paper under his assessment of Bird's Opening (1 f4).
That said, Sam seems to have mostly done his homework. The main line he gives for each line seems to be the critical test, especially for the slightly offbeat ones. Or, at least that's true for those parts of the book where my own theory goes as far as the book's (no, not just the copyright notice!). Particularly notable to me was the line he gave against the Blackmar-Diemar Gambit, which he seems to have a personal hatred for, 1 d4 d5 2 e4 de 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 f3 ef 5 Nxf3 Bg4 6 Bc4 e6 7 0-0 c6 "And, after ...Be7, ...Nbd7 and ...0-0, where did the pawn go?" This seems spot on and it illustrates the usefulness of the book for its target readership (I guess 1200 - 1900 at least, probably a little wider). Having played against the BDG just once so far in my competitive career (for lack of a better word!), I hadn't a clue what to play against it, but here is a line which will, should I meet it again, let me avoid all of the complicated mire that opening often drags the unwary into.
Judging his choices for the mainstream openings is a bit harder for me, as my own repertoire choices tend to be a little offbeat. However, I do note a couple of places where Sam has ignored (or been unaware of) a significant main line. For instance, in the French Advance, he mentions 6 ...c4 in passing, but doesn't elaborate. By way of contrast, Gary Lane, in his book on that opening, devotes 40 pages - the longest chapter, to that line. In the Modern Benoni too, Sam gives the Taimanov as the critical line, which is fair enough, but then totally ignores John Watson's entirely critical 9...Qh4+.
Those criticisms are perhaps a little harsh and are certainly nowhere near as important as they might sound, as the intention of the coverage of each opening is more to give a flavour of how it works, combined with pointers in the right direction if you want to explore one further. Certainly, you'd be mad to try playing something like the Modern Benoni having read just two and a half pages on it. That said, the coverage of some openings is really excellent. The four and a bit pages on the Guioco Piano encapsulate the opening like nothing else I've read, including a page and a half on the Evan's Gambit (including a key novelty from Grischuck which I hadn't seen before), an odd but lively and useful possibility in a very normal opening which many readers mightn't otherwise have known existed.
Before I wrap up, a note on the structure of the book. Sam organises the openings into Open, Semi-Open, Queen's Gambit, Indian Defences and Flank Openings. At the start of some sections, and several openings, he discusses some themes common in the positions arising from the opening(s) in question. While I would have liked to see more of this sort of thing, what of it is present is well-written and useful, while his notes to the lines as they arrive expand very well on the themes and plans in the positions. The next time I'm looking for something different, I'll open Understanding the Chess Openings, because it is a source of information unlike anything else I have. I've read people criticising books of this sort on the grounds that any strong club player can explain most of this stuff to you, but that argument doesn't hold any weight with me. I don't have a tame IM at home waiting to explain what on earth is going on in the Semi-Slav! I have no reservations recommending it for average to above-average club players as a reference book you'll keep dipping into, and to weaker players as a good general opening guide.
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70 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding overview of all openings - just what I needed!, September 12, 2005
This review is from: Understanding the Chess Openings (Paperback)
I'm so delighted with this purchase that I've decided to write my first ever Amazon review. This book has exceeded my expectations, and has promptly become the most useful book in my chess collection. What this book does is impressive - somehow every major chess opening has been explained in a single volume of 224 pages. I can't quite explain the wizardry used to achieve this, but I checked - all the openings are there. I'm guessing the author has found precisely the right balance between giving main variations, sidelines and general explanation.
Each opening has been condensed down, so as not to overburden the reader, and yet a remarkable amount of pertinent explanation is presented.
Unlike other one volume encyclopedic works on the opening, which give primarily pages of variations (and assessments in symbols), there are plenty of words here introducing the key ideas. This means the book is able to signal the tricky move order issues that clubplayers have to watch out for. I can see this book helping a lot in my future games. There are around 400 diagrams, and the main lines of most of the variations run about 14 to 17 moves deep. This is exactly what a player rated 1600 to 2100 is looking for. Great book!
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39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
GREAT concise book that covers a lot of territory...., January 17, 2007
This review is from: Understanding the Chess Openings (Paperback)
There are many different openings books which focus on different aspects of opening play. This book is like a survey of the territory and covers the most likely openings to come up and the many variations of each. What I most like about it is that it is logically organized, well-written and easy to follow. It includes commentary, but the commentary is not comprehensive. This good or bad depending upon what you are looking for in a book on openings. In short, the text gets to the point with respect to the major tactical advantages and disadvantages of particular openings. However, it doesn't cover any of them in great depth.
I like this book because it doesn't repeat a lot of the ground covered in other books. It is a small volume at less than 225 pages of many different openings and the MOST important points about each. This makes it a great reference book to get one started with a particular opening. However, you need something with more depth to go along with it.
I am sometimes "turned off" by chess books which are 1,000 pages with very little text or diagrams. This is a bias that I have and learning anything sometimes seems overwhelming. This book strikes a nice balance between text, diagrams and presenting a series of moves. It makes the content more digestible and because of how its organized, easy to learn.
As far as I am concerned, this is a MUST own book for a serious chess player and particulary for someone transitioning from the beginner to advanced beginner or early stages of intermediate play. It uses modern notation and it is extremely well thought out with respect to layout. Both the author and the editor did an excellent job!
This book WILL help you to improve your opening play. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to any player and if you are turned off by poorly organized or cumbersome large volumes, you will like it even more.
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